


Origins

by Raxtilt



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Gen, Speculation, ghost origins
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-06-03
Updated: 2014-06-03
Packaged: 2018-02-03 07:18:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 901
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1735922
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Raxtilt/pseuds/Raxtilt
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Danny's parents create a new device that will reveal a ghost's last living moments. It's best to just get rid of it before they can use it to find out his secret, right? But on the other hand... Maybe he should test it out on a couple other ghosts first. You know. Just to be sure it works.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Origins

Danny walked sluggishly downstairs at about noon on a Saturday, still in pajama pants and a large t-shirt, hoping to get some breakfast in him before the ghost-fighting could start again. He headed into the kitchen, where his parents were talking about their latest gadget.

"I still don't understand why we need something like this." his dad complained. "Next time we see that ghost boy, I'll have the Fenton peeler ready, and we can just peel him apart! That'll teach us all we need to know!"

And, there went Danny's appetite. Jazz, who was sitting at the table, eating lunch, and doing her best to ignore them, gave him an apologetic look, and he just shrugged. He was used to it.

His mom looked up at him then and frowned. "Danny, you're just now getting up?" she asked disapprovingly.

"What?" he replied defensively. "It's a weekend! And I was up late last night, catching gh- uh, catching..."

"Catching up on his school work." Jazz finished for him. "He's really overworked in school right now and needs the extra sleep to stabilize his fragile state of mind!"

"Uh, yeah. Fragile. That's me, alright." Danny agreed, wondering again how many times he'd been smashed against a wall last night. "So, um, can I get to the fridge?" he made a 'move over' gesture with his hand, since his mom was standing between him and the milk he needed for his cereal.

She moved out of his way, but she still looked upset about something. "I don't know, if classwork is this hard on you Danny, maybe we should talk with Mr. Lancer. These late nights can't be good for you..."

"N-no!" Danny panicked. He'd barely been doing his school work at all, and if they learned that much, they were sure to realize he was up to something in his spare time. "It's okay. I think I'm finally back on track after last night. After all, Jazz was helping me, so I can start sleeping at a normal time again now, and no reason to go all the way down to the school and talk to boring old teachers." When she still didn't look convinced, Danny decided he needed to distract them. "Anyway, what's this new thing you're working on?" he asked, nodding toward the half-finished pile of metal on the table while he pulled the milk from the fridge.

His dad took it from there. "That, my boy, is the Fenton de-mystifier. Built to give us a whole new understanding of every ghost we encounter."

Danny sat down and forced himself to eat while he listened. By now, he was pretty good at telling himself that when his parents said ghosts, they meant all ghosts _except_  him. Even though in reality, they were often talking almost exclusively about 'the ghost boy'.

"We can find out plenty about ghosts themselves with our equipment," his mom continued, "but who were they when they were alive? What experiences made them into what they are? It was all left up to speculation."

Danny, meanwhile, had  _under-_ speculated on how much milk he was going to need. He went to pour himself more.

"Until now!" his dad proclaimed. "When this baby is complete, it'll show us the final human moments of ghosts!"

Danny felt a chill go through him, and, whoops, the milk carton went straight through his hand. And all over the table. His parents snatched up the pieces of gadget before the milk could touch them, and Jazz stood up with a sigh. "I'll get a towel." she said, walking away.

* * *

 

Holding his breath to stay silent, Danny phased into the basement, looking around carefully before floating over to the de-mystifier. His parents had just finished it earlier that day and set it on the counter where they could see it the moment they walked down there, their newest and best gadget yet. But they wouldn't see it next time they walked down there. Danny was going to destroy it.

"Danny." came a voice from the doorway.

Danny jumped as if he'd just been jabbed with a burning stick. But it was just Jazz. He sighed in relief and asked, "What are you doing down here?"

"Looking for you." she replied. "You can't start wrecking mom and dad's inventions just because they scare you." she stated.

"Why not?" he argued. "Besides, it isn't just some new ecto-weapon. It could show them who I am. I'm going to take it into the ghost zone to destroy it, so mom and dad don't hear anything and come running, but you should probably still get out of here. You don't want them to find out you were down here."

"Don't do this, little brother. Stealing and wrecking someone else's things? It isn't like you." she worried.

"I don't have a choice. If you really think I would be better off with mom and dad knowing my secret, why don't you go upstairs right now and tell them yourself?" when she sighed sadly and didn't respond, he went on. "No? Then I'm taking this thing and getting rid of it." He picked up the Fenton de-mystifier and flew into the portal. A safe distance away from pretty much everything, Danny glanced down at the device in his hand and had a thought. It really would be a shame to destroy this thing without at  _least_ seeing if it worked...

**Author's Note:**

> Tiny little prologue, just to set things up so I can get straight to ghost origins in the next chapters. FEEDBACK IS APPRECIATED ALWAYS


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